The MSU women’s basketball team is preparing to make its second attempt to win a championship.
After beating North Carolina State, 58-57, Wednesday night, the Spartans (23-13) advanced to the finals of the WNIT.
Spartans one win away from WNIT championship
Sophomore center Lauren Aitch dribbles past North Carolina State forward Tia Bell during Wednesday’s game at Breslin Center. The Spartans defeated the Wolfpack 58-57 and will move on to the WNIT finals Saturday.
In their three previous WNIT trips, the Spartans never advanced past the semifinal round.
The Spartans are hoping to bring the WNIT title home after dropping their first chance for a national championship in the 2005 NCAA Tournament, 84-62, to Baylor.
“What’s fueled this team’s fire, mine included, is feeling like you belong somewhere else,” MSU head coach Suzy Merchant said. “The only way to prove anyone wrong is to live in the now, and the now is really having an opportunity to continue our season, to put consistent effort together instead of the inconsistency which really cost us down the line.”
Before the Spartans can do any celebrating, they must get through Marquette first.
Merchant said she knows nothing about Marquette coming into the game, but said the team will be ready come Saturday.
Players, including sophomore center Lauren Aitch and junior guard Mia Johnson, have said losing in the WNIT is unacceptable — and they’ve been playing as if losing isn’t an option throughout the entire tournament.
Johnson, who averaged 3.3 points per game in the regular season, is averaging 5.25 points in the tournament. Aitch is averaging 8.25 points in the WNIT after averaging 7.4 in the regular season.
Leading the tournament in scoring is freshman Kalisha Keane at 15 points per game.
“We definitely felt like we got robbed by not going to the NCAA Tournament,” Aitch said. “And like coach said, success is the best revenge and that’s what we’re rolling with.”
Sophomore center Allyssa DeHaan is on track to break her own Big Ten blocks record against Marquette — only needing one more. She currently sits at 145 blocks this season.
Scouting report
Marquette’s big offensive gun is guard Krystal Ellis, who averages 19.5 points per game.
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Ellis is hot right now, coming off of a 27-point performance against Colorado to put the team in the finals to face MSU.
Ellis’s right-hand woman, forward Svetlana Kovalenko, will be the threat on the boards — leading the team with a 6.9 per game rebound average.
The Golden Eagles are 20-14 overall heading into Saturday’s game.
The game tips at 4 p.m. at Breslin Center.
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